NEW YORK — The NHL and the union got back to work Friday, just not with each other yet. Both sides had plans to meet separately with federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh in the morning but hadn’t set up a time to return to bargaining in an effort to save the seas... More »
WASHINGTON — The House has overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by Superstorm Sandy. The vote came more than two months after the storm hit and days after Northeast Republicans eru... More »
DEERFIELD, Ill. — An important Walgreen revenue measurement slid more than analysts expected in December, even though prescription counts continued to recover for the nation’s largest drugstore chain since the resolution of a contract dispute. The Deerfield, I... More »
WASHINGTON — A patchwork extension of federal farm programs passed as part of a larger “fiscal cliff” bill keeps the price of milk from rising but doesn’t include many of the goodies that farm-state lawmakers are used to getting for their rural districts. Hous... More »
DETROIT — When the word reached the Orion Assembly Plant, it spread along the serpentine assembly line like news of a death or natural disaster: General Motors, the biggest automaker in the world, had filed for bankruptcy protection. On that grim day in 2009, ... More »
ETROIT — A healthier economy and more model introductions should push U.S. auto sales above the 15 million mark this year, predicts an auto industry research firm. The Polk research firm says auto sales should continue to lead the country’s economic recovery, ... More »
SEOUL, South Korea — When he lands in North Korea, even Google’s executive chairman will likely have to relinquish his smartphone, leaving him disconnected from the global information network he helped build. Eric Schmidt is a staunch advocate of global Intern... More »
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two U.S. drone strikes on northwest Pakistan killed a senior Taliban commander who fought American forces in Afghanistan but had a truce with the Pakistani military, intelligence officials said Thursday. The commander, Maulvi Nazir, was am... More »
VATICAN CITY — It’s “cash only” now for tourists at the Vatican wanting to pay for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services after Italy’s central bank decided to block electronic payments, including credit cards, at the tiny city state. The Italian daily C... More »
CHICAGO — Boeing Co. says it delivered 601 planes last year, putting it on track to beat European rival Airbus as the top plane maker for the year. Airbus has beaten Boeing in deliveries in recent years, but Boeing is now cranking out its new 787 and a revampe... More »
WASHINGTON — Housing is rebounding. Families are shrinking debts. Europe has avoided a financial crackup. And the fiscal cliff deal has removed the most urgent threat to the U.S. economy. So why don’t economists foresee stronger growth and hiring in 2013? Part... More »
NEW YORK — Hormel Foods apparently has a hankering for a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. The company primarily known for Spam and other cured, smoked and deli meats said Thursday that it’s buying Skippy, the country’s No. 2 peanut butter brand, in its bigges... More »
NEW ORLEANS — The Justice Department reached a $1.4 billion settlement Thursday with Transocean Ltd., the owner of the drilling rig that sank after an explosion killed 11 workers and spawned the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed settle... More »
NEW YORK — As the city grapples with rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy, developers are pressing ahead with plans for an ambitious addition to the shoreline of storm-torn Staten Island: the world’s largest Ferris wheel. Sandy’s flooding spurred some changes to ... More »
EVANSVILLE — The demolition of Roberts Stadium remains on target for completion by spring, Parks Director Denise Johnson told the Evansville Board of Park Commissioners Wednesday. Klenck Co. is the lead contractor for the project. The Evansville company’s cont... More »
NEW YORK — The “fiscal cliff” compromise, even with all its chaos, controversy and unresolved questions, was enough to send the stock market shooting higher Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year. All the major U.S. stock indexes swelled more than 2 ... More »
EVANSVILLE — Was 2012 a good year or a bad year for the Tri-State’s economy? The short answer: Both. The past 12 months were marked by uncertainty, a mixed bag of economic indicators and company news ranging from big workforce expansions to closures. As a samp... More »
A new Iranian attack helicopter has been seen in public for the very first time. Apparently closely related to the Bell A-1H Cobra helicopter gunship series, the IAIO (Iranian Aviation Industries Organization) Toufan II is reportedly already in service with ... More »
WASHINGTON, D.C. — WASHINGTON (AP) Maneuvered into a political corner, House Republicans abandoned demands for changes in emergency legislation to prevent widespread tax increases and painful across-the-board spending cuts and cleared the way for a final, clim... More »
Even if U.S. lawmakers avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, higher taxes and brinksmanship in Washington are likely to continue damaging the fragile economy well into 2013. In the early hours of the new year, the Senate passed emergency legislation to prevent dee... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The euro zone sovereign debt crisis is far from over even though reform measures designed to address the roots of the problem are beginning to bear fruit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in her New Year’s address. In a taped intervi... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who is running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year’s election, said austerity measures being imposed on struggling euro zone countries were too severe. In an interview with the Frank... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Friday that Spain did not need to tap for now the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program for troubled euro zone governments but did not rule out asking for aid in the future. Rajoy has faced ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Back in May, as the euro zone veered deeper into crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman penned one of his gloomiest columns about the single currency, a piece in the New York Times entitled “Apocalypse Fairly Soon”. “Suddenly, it... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Measures taken this year by policymakers to address the economic crisis in the euro zone allow for cautious optimism regarding 2013, European Central Bank ratesetter Ewald Nowotny said on Friday. Nowotny welcomed the launch of a permanent re... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Shoppers in euro zone nations battered by years of recession and crisis are on the hunt for bargains, delaying their purchases until the last minute, or simply not buying at all as post-Christmas sales get underway. Britain and Sweden appear... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German luxury automaker Audi plans to keep spending on new vehicles, plants and technology to increase market share as a prolonged weakening in European markets forces layoffs and factory closures at volume manufacturers. The division of Vol... More »
(Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said the publishing arm it plans to spin off from its entertainment assets would have lost $2.08 billion in the last fiscal year if it were a standalone company. News Corp filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commi... More »
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece is detaining migrants, including children, in inhuman conditions unworthy of a member country of the European Union, human rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. Greece – the main entry point into the European Union for ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union regulators dropped an antitrust investigation into Thomson Reuters on Thursday after the company made it easier for customers using its financial instrument codes to switch to competing services. The European Commission said... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Economic growth is slowing to a worrying degree across the euro zone and not only in the periphery, European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said in an interview to be published on Sunday in Germany’s Welt am Sonntag new... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global shares fell on Friday on unease over the lack of progress in U.S. fiscal negotiations and on signs of a deepening recession in the euro zone, but data indicating strong expansion in Chinese manufacturing helped lift oil prices. Chin... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europeans’ reluctance to spend on travel and eating out slowed increases in the cost of living in the euro zone in November, and the economy’s deteriorating power to generate jobs offered little chance for consumers to help in economic rec... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will soon intensify pension reforms, possibly accelerating an increase in the retirement age and restricting index-linking of pension payouts to meet European Union demands to fix the country’s troubled public finances, Spanish officia... More »
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – EU lawmakers gave final approval on Wednesday for a European Union budget of nearly 133 billion euros ($172 billion) for 2013, removing some uncertainty around the bloc’s future funding after talks on spending for 2014-2020 broke... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone factory output continued its steep fall in autumn this year, underscoring the feeble domestic demand that risks prolonging the bloc’s recession. Industrial production in the 17 countries sharing the euro fell 1.4 percent in Octob... More »
London (Reuters) – Europe must continue with its “far reaching structural reforms” that have helped to rebalance the euro zone economy and rebuild confidence, EU’s top economics official, Olli Rehn, said in an opinion piece in the Financial Times on Tuesday. “... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Around a thousand members of left-wing and human rights groups marched in Oslo on Sunday to protest against the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union. Around 50 organizations held the torch-lit march on the eve of the award, arg... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – German exports of cars and machinery helped shield the euro zone from a deeper recession in the third quarter while companies emptied warehouses and cut investments, showing the role of trade in driving any recovery. Confirming a 0.1 perce... More »
JERUSALEM/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Israel moved ahead with plans to build 3,000 settler homes in one of the most sensitive areas of the West Bank, as the European Union summoned Israel’s envoy to add its voice to a storm of international protest. Israeli Prime Min... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission imposed the biggest antitrust penalty in its history on Wednesday, fining six firms including Philips, LG Electronics and Panasonic a total of 1.47 billion euros ($1.92 billion) for running two cartels for nearly a ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone’s economic slump was a little less pronounced in November than previously thought, although there are few signs the region will emerge from recession any time soon, business surveys showed on Wednesday. Markit’s Euro zone Compo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – London Mayor Boris Johnson heaped pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday by calling for a referendum on a deeply pared back British membership of the European Union. Johnson, speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event, said t... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone factory prices barely rose in October, echoing the slowing pace in consumer inflation, although the European Central Bank is expected to wait a little longer before cutting interest rates to help the slumping economy. Prices at f... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone’s crisis is far from over and its members must tighten budgets and forge a banking union to leave behind the “fairy world” that allowed problems to grow, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday. Draghi’s call... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Friday that budgetary consolidation in the euro zone would entail a short-term economic impact but the currency bloc was on track for a recovery in the second half of 2013. “We have not yet... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Whether the state of the euro zone economy will force the European Central Bank to cut its main interest rate to a new record low has economists more divided than ever, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday While only a handful of the 71 econom... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The Greek government and financial markets were cheered on Tuesday by an agreement between euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund to reduce Greece’s debt, paving the way for the release of urgently needed aid loans... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund clinched agreement on a new debt target for Greece on Monday in a breakthrough towards releasing an urgently needed tranche of loans to the near-bankrupt economy, officials sa... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders failed to reach agreement on Friday on a new seven-year budget for their troubled bloc, calling off talks in less than two days after most countries balked at far deeper spending cuts demanded by Britain and its alli... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders failed to reach agreement on a new seven-year budget for their troubled bloc, calling off talks in less than two days after most countries rejected deeper spending cuts demanded by Britain and its allies. (Brussels n... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders abandoned talks on Friday to find a deal on the bloc’s next long-term budget, after failing to agree on the size and shape of cuts to the 1 trillion euro spending plan. “It’s over,” one EU official involved in the ta... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Prospects of a deal on the European Union’s long-term budget dimmed on Friday after a fresh compromise proposal offered concessions to France and Poland but ignored British and German demands for deeper overall spending cuts. European Coun... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone economy is on course for its weakest quarter since the dark days of early 2009, according to business surveys that showed companies toiling against shrinking order books in November. Service sector firms like banks and hotels t... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she doubted that an agreement on the European Union’s seven-year budget could be reached this week and that a further round of negotiations would most likely be required at a later date. “I believe that... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union negotiators are close to securing British and German backing for a deal on nearly a trillion euros of spending over the next seven years, but concessions will be needed to win support from France, Poland and some southern Eu... More »
BERLIN/ATHENS (Reuters) – International lenders failed for the second week to reach a deal to release emergency aid for Greece and will try again next Monday, but Germany signaled that significant divisions remain. Euro zone finance ministers, the Internationa... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – European Union chief Herman Van Rompuy’s compromise draft EU budget does not go far enough in reducing spending, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman said on Wednesday. “While Van Rompuy’s proposals are a step in the right direct... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s international lenders failed for the second week running to agree how to get the country’s debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go in six days’ time. After nearly 12 hours of talks through the night during... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers are considering allowing Athens to buy back up to 40 billion euros of its own bonds at a discount as one of a number of measures to cut Greek debt to 120 percent of GDP within the next eight years. Going into th... More »
BIELEFELD, Germany (Reuters) – Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker took aim at Austria, Germany and the southern German state of Bavaria on Saturday for suggesting that a Greek exit from the euro zone was looming. “Threats in the Austrian, German or Bavari... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The BBC agreed to pay 185,000 pounds ($295,000) on Thursday to a former treasurer of Britain’s Conservative Party wrongly accused of child sex abuse as a result of one of its reports. The settlement came as media reports said one of the BBC’... More »
HELSINKI/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s top economic official sought to rule out any write-off of Greece’s debt to governments on Thursday after a European Central Bank policymaker said for the first time that a “haircut” on part of it was probable.... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Commodity trader Glencore’s $32 billion takeover of Swiss miner Xstrata looked set to go ahead after winning the backing of Qatar Holdings, the bid target’s second-largest shareholder. Qatar, an unexpected kingmaker in Glencore’s bid for Xst... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank expects the euro zone economy to remain poor, ECB President Mario Draghi said after the bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday. “Economic activity in the euro area is expected to remain weak,” Draghi told... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The United States and Japan must share responsibility with Europe for ensuring global economic stability, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said, signaling that a G20 meeting this weekend should not focus solely on the euro zone cri... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Ltd and its “Star Wars” franchise for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster deal that includes the surprise promise of a new film in the series in 2015. The deal u... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s $4 billion deal to buy George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Ltd, Disney’s third major entertainment acquisition in seven years, started taking shape in May 2011, when the “Star Wars” creator had to show Disney CEO Bob Iger how to u... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone economic sentiment fell less than expected in October, data showed on Tuesday, thanks to small improvements in optimism among consumers and in the retail sector, which helped limit the downward pull from industry, services and co... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German joblessness rose for a seventh month in a row in October, highlighting the vulnerability of Europe’s biggest economy to the euro zone crisis. Economists expect the trend to reverse, however, as growth revives in the new year. The numb... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Loans to euro zone companies dropped significantly in September as the euro debt crisis and a darkening economic outlook dampened their appetite to borrow, while ECB efforts to encourage lending showed little impact. Loans to the private ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union countries will examine a plan this week to allow the ECB to supervise banks in states outside the euro zone alongside those within the currency area, according to an EU document that lays down limits on the central bank’s ro... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stocks faltered on Monday on weak corporate results and outlooks, while the euro gained after a regional vote in Spain was seen as moving a solution to the euro zone debt crisis one step closer. U.S. stocks eked out gains in a late-... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The euro zone’s fiscal deficit fell sharply last year as governments slashed expenses and raised taxes to regain market confidence in their public finances, but public debt still climbed, data from the European Union’s statistics office sh... More »
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on the eve of a summit of European leaders that debt-ridden euro zone states must help themselves while Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe needed to resolve its crisis to become comp... More »
BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Europe and the United States are set to launch trade talks early next year to deepen the world’s largest trading relationship, EU and U.S. officials say, potentially unleashing billions of euros of new transatlantic business. To... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain is pushing for changes to a proposed euro zone banking union to dilute the power of the European Central Bank, EU officials said, potentially hampering efforts to build the infrastructure urgently needed to underpin the euro. The E... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund urged European policymakers to deepen the financial and fiscal ties within the euro area with some urgency to restore sagging confidence in the global financial system. The IMF’s stark tone on the euro area deb... More »
LUXEMBOURG/ATHENS (Reuters) – Eleven euro zone countries agreed on Tuesday to press ahead with a disputed tax on financial transactions aimed at making traders share the cost of fixing a crisis that has rocked the single currency area. The initiative, pushed h... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund urged European policymakers to deepen the financial and fiscal ties within the euro area with some urgency to restore sagging confidence in the global financial system. In its semi-annual check on the world’s f... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s antitrust case with the European Union over e-book publishing could be settled in a couple of months, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Tuesday. Almunia, the EU’s antitrust chief, said he hoped to resolv... More »
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund held a “thorough and robust” debate on Greece on Monday, but failed to make significant progress in deciding how best to get the country back on track with its bailout progr... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – European diplomats discussing the possibility of a separate budget to improve monetary union in the euro zone are considering a sum of around 20 billion euros ($26 billion), according to the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD). There is still ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Euro zone inflation does not present a threat and should ease below the two percent mark next year, ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told Germany’s top-selling tabloid Bild, according to an advance copy of an article due to appear o... More »
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – The U.S. government said on Saturday it had received European Union documents on funding for the Airbus (EAD.PA ) A350 after requesting them from the World Trade Organization over a month ago in an ongoing transatlantic dispute ove... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Heavily indebted euro zone firms are reaping the benefits of the European Central Bank’s pledge to pull the region out of crisis, allowing them to borrow more cheaply and draw investors back into their shares. In the aftermath of the 2008 cr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The euro zone debt crisis is pushing the International Monetary Fund into new, and at times, uncomfortable territory. The global lender is preparing to monitor some of Europe’s largest economies possibly without its biggest weapon – mone... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s industrial output fell to a 15-month low in August, hit by sagging sales in its top export market China and confidence-sapping euro zone crisis, fuelling concerns that the world’s third-largest economy could slip into recession later ... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The European Union on Thursday asked the World Trade Organization for the right to impose trade sanctions worth up to $12 billion annually on the United States in retaliation for illegal U.S. subsidies to planemaker Boeing (BA.N ). The reque... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU regulators are set to suspend indefinitely an antitrust investigation into credit default swaps deals offered by clearing house ICE Clear Europe to nine banks, due to the lack of evidence, a European Commission source said on Wednesday.... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The heads of France’s main automakers issued grim warnings on the prolonged European market slump and its consequences as industry executives gathered for the Paris auto show. Renault (RENA.PA ) slashed its market forecasts on Wednesday on th... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – European banks have admitted they have a cost problem, and must now show skeptical investors they are doing all they can to lead a profitable life without the crutch of bloated jobs, bonuses and business lines. Critics say many have been too... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – President Francois Hollande’s government demanded on Monday its Green allies fall into line over European Union policy after the ecologist party said it would oppose a European Union budget discipline pact in a vote next month. While the pact... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Euro zone states are preparing to allow the bloc’s permanent bailout fund to leverage its capital in the same way as its predecessor so it can reach a capacity of more than 2 trillion euros and rescue big countries if necessary, Der Spiegel ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – European Commissioner Michel Barnier is seeking a compromise with Germany on banking union plans that would allow local regulators to carry on supervising banks but under common euro zone guidelines. Barnier, who is at odds with Germany over... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The euro zone enters a dangerous week, strewn with potential landmines, in a somewhat more optimistic mood after investors welcomed a European Central Bank plan to prevent a breakup of the single currency. German judges, Dutch voters, IMF ins... More »
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Europe’s debt crisis is undermining the common values that once united the continent and the single currency risks opening up new rifts across the European Union, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday. Calling for the 27-nation... More »
CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – Software giant Microsoft is ready to introduce measures that would address the European Union’s antitrust concerns about users’ ability to chose between different browsers, European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Saturday. EU... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank agreed on Thursday to launch a new and potentially unlimited bond-buying program to lower struggling euro zone countries’ borrowing costs and draw a line under the debt crisis. Seeking to back up his July pledge ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. bank Citigroup (C.N ) has launched a commodity trade finance unit, expanding into a sector once dominated by European lenders who have been shrinking their activities to cope with the euro zone debt crisis. Citigroup has hired Kris Van ... More »
